Modifying very high-end cars is obviously Novitec’s stock in trade; no fear for it when faced with a McLaren 750S or Rolls-Royce Ghost or Lamborghini Revuelto, they are merely a jumping off point for the concept of ‘more’. But some cars, surely, resist the idea of aftermarket tinkering. They are simply too costly to buy, too obviously prized for their originality and (yes) all too often bought as immovable assets, thereby negating the requirement to ‘upgrade’ them in the first place.
Based on the fact that Ferrari built fewer than 600 examples of the Daytona SP3 and they each cost a couple of million quid, we assumed that the mid-engined ‘Icona’ series car numbered among the latter. But apparently not. Novitec, it turns out, has gone where few other tuners fear to tread, and broken out the spanners for a light round of Germanic tweaking.
Granted, aside from the inevitable Vossen wheels, it has limited its attentions to a single area: namely, the exhaust. This seems prudent for two reasons. Number one, for the reasons listed above, it seems very unlikely that any Ferrari owner is going to consent to a change of appearance when it comes a car that already looks unlike any other. But (number two) they might be very receptive indeed to the concept of an exhaust which permits the engine to expel its spent gases more freely.
Because, lest we forget, the 6.5-litre V12, producing 840hp and unfettered by hybrid assistance, is very much the reason for buying an SP3 in the first place. Mid-mounting the F140 motor is not something it takes lightly – the successor to the LaFerrari, after all, is powered by a hybridised twin-turbo V6. This makes the Icona model seem like even more of a throwback than it did originally – and what better way to double down on this theme than having it sound ‘reminiscent of motor racing at high engine speeds’?
Novitec doesn’t go into exhaustive detail about the new exhaust, except to say that it is fully thermally insulated, features metal catalysts and has been ‘elaborately calibrated’ to help increase output by 28hp. Probably you wouldn’t notice that, although if the video is anything to go by, it seems likely that you’d notice a change in sound levels with the flaps open. Even sticking with the standard tailpipes, Novitec’s modified SP3 (even when short shifting) seems impressively loud.
The firm also offers to take things up a notch or two in the cabin, as well (you can have Alcantara and/or leather applied to pretty much any surface you like), though we’d assume the take up for that is roughly equivalent to the number of buyers who think the choice of three staggered 20/21-inch alloys preferable to Maranello’s original offering. But hearing that sound every day (or at least every time you get around to visiting your climate-controlled, underground bat cave) would have us sorely tempted to take Novitec up on the rest of the package.